Barry Sonnenfeld
Barry Sonnenfeld
Barry Sonnenfeldis an American filmmaker and television director. He worked as cinematographer for the Coen brothers, then later he directed films such as The Addams Family and its sequel, Addams Family Values along with the Men in Black trilogy, and the critically acclaimed Get Shorty. Sonnenfeld has also had four collaborations with actor and comedian Will Smith...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth1 April 1953
CountryUnited States of America
two guy six
I'm not the one or two take guy, but I'm not the 20, 30, 50, 70 take guy either. If I do a bunch of takes, like more than five or six, it's usually for some technical reasons.
believe leaving actors
I don't believe in leaving a scene in because it was really hard to shoot, or because it's the reason you took the movie, or because you always wanted to work with an actor . . . If it's not making the movie work, get rid of it.
editing done shooting
When you're done shooting, the movie that you're going to release when you're done shooting is as bad as it will ever be. And then through editing, and finishing the effects and adding music, you get to make the movie better again. So I'm really hard on myself and on the movie.
cutting thinking might
The first cut I do is usually between five and 10 minutes shorter then the cut that we release. Anything I think isn't working or might not work, I don't even put it in the director's cut. And usually it's the studio suggesting I put stuff back in, as opposed to studios saying, "You got to lose 40 minutes," they are always saying, "You've got to gain five minutes."
cutting directors finals
I'm an unusual director in that my cut is usually shorter then the final released film. I like short films.
relax clue should
We should all relax about life because you don't have a clue as to what's really going on.
definitions firsts figures
By definition a sequel can't be original. So you've got to figure out what worked the first time around.
giving-up moving safety
When I move from being a cameraman to being a director I looked at a lot of other cameramen who tried to make the move. And in each case they moved up their camera operator to be the DP, which really meant they didn't want to give up being the DP, and really wanted to do both. And my feeling was if I was going to succeed as a director, I had to just be a director and give up the safety net of being a cameraman.
years film reviews
I haven't read a review of one of my films for the best part of 10 years.
wife good-things reviews
I was seeing a lot of really good things about Get Shorty when it came out, and my wife pointed out that if you validate the good reviews, you also have to validate the bad reviews.
men paris black
Michael Jackson wanted to be in Men in Black II. He told me he had seen the first Men in Black in Paris and had stayed behind and sat there and wept. I had to explain to him that it was a comedy.
laughing people use
There is something about being a director where, for me personally, I get to . . . it's the closest I'll ever come to being able to be a stand up. And to use my particular sense of humor, and hear people laughing, without me having to stand up in front of an audience and tell jokes.
school kids graduates
These movies are like my kids. I just love them to death. Some of them go to Harvard and some of them can barely graduate high school.
suicide hate views
The weird thing is that I hate to fly, and the quote that I give people is that every time I get off a plane, I view it as a failed suicide attempt.